Hello Caroline: I did note the Birstall entries but have no way of telling whether these are mine or not. I was hoping for some more information from the muster rolls but that will need to wait for another trip. In the meantime, I was just intrigued at the idea that the Army would take small foundling boys and train them to be drummers and fifers. From the boy's point of view, it was probably a good move. At least, he'd be fed regularly and clothed. If he showed any kind of talent, he'd be relatively well-paid too. Thanks for the suggestion. Regards, Irene

Hi Irene, Your best bet is, of course, to find Joseph's attestation record. Family Search has 847 birth / baptism entries for people with the exact surname Boy in England, 119 in Scotland and 39 in Ireland (none in Wales). So, although uncommon, it is clearly an established family name, without even taking account of possible variant spellings. Most of the entries I saw had parents listed, so obviously weren't foundlings. The one entry I saw without parents' names was a girl! I personally think it is more likely that your ancestor came from one of these Boy families than that he acquired the name as a foundling. In my experience, foundlings tended to be given the name of the place where they were found (parish or location) or the church where they were baptised (eg Andrews). This thread on RootsChat gives some examples of sources of foundling surnames: http://goo.gl/cd2Ss. The slave registers on Ancestry do show that Boy was a surname given to slaves in the West Indies, however - poor souls. Of the 847 English births / baptisms on Family Search, 123 were in Yorkshire. Parish Registers for the West Riding of Yorkshire are available on Ancestry. I took a look at the Birstall registers and there seem to be a number of families with the surname Boy in the Birkenshaw area of the parish, using Joseph as a given name over more than one generation. In passing, I noticed a record on Ancestry for an earlier Joseph Boy in the British army, discharged in North America in 1778. Caroline Gurney www.carosfamily.com On 7 January 2012 19:04, Irene Marlborough <[email protected]> wrote: > Hello Caroline: > > I did note the Birstall entries but have no way of telling whether these are > mine or not. I was hoping for some more information from the muster rolls > but that will need to wait for another trip. In the meantime, I was just > intrigued at the idea that the Army would take small foundling boys and > train them to be drummers and fifers. From the boy's point of view, it was > probably a good move. At least, he'd be fed regularly and clothed. If he > showed any kind of talent, he'd be relatively well-paid too. > > Thanks for the suggestion. > > Regards, Irene